TMA’s music capability has had a busy year with TMA hosting Snoop Dogg for a private concert in Dallas this spring, but little did we know they had something bigger cooking with Trulia.com. When TMA pitched the idea of “Hammerfy Your Home” to Trulia, it didn’t take long for the new client to jump on board with an idea centered around putting the fun back in home search with customizable music videos from MC Hammer.

“While there’s been lots of improvements on how people can search for homes, we noticed that the home description hadn’t really evolved much and chose that to focus on. What could be more fun (and different) that having a hip hop legend rap about your dream house?,” TMA senior manager Jen Daly said.

TMA’s Chief Innovation Officer Larry Weintraub said, “We pitched them a couple ideas, but this was always our favorite. We pitched it Thursday and on Monday the client called and said, ‘We love it! Let’s go.'”

Trulia is leading the way for brand s embracing collaboration with artists Daly says and it’s more exciting to work with artists like Hammer to tell the brand s’ stories. Weintraub said the awareness boost in a competitive market was a big reason the campaign was loved right away.

“This particular brand knows they need to increase awareness in this competitive space. Trulia wanted to up the online recognition. The idea became so loved that shareability became a huge goal. You wanted to create something that ultimately you’d want to share with your friends. There was a viral component as well.”

One of the big pluses of working with MC Hammer was his ability to work through all of the different aspects of the campaign, which included recording the different variations of the song, the music video and editing all that together.

“This is a guy who is incredibly professional. Started looking at the lyrics, made some creative suggestions and then just flied through them. Considering all of the things he went through, he was a joy. He gave high-fives and hugs before taking a group photo (below),” Weintraub said. “You never know what you’re going to get with celebrities, but he was professional and fun.”

Watching Hammer embracing the idea, dancing and rapping live in-person was a huge highlight for Daly and having fun while working on an innovative campaign is what it’s all about, right?

“As a child of the 90’s, it was surreal! We recorded the verses at a legendary recording studio in Hollywood that people like Led Zepplin and Guns & Roses have recorded at so that was already a little mind blowing,” Daly said.